It felt wrong to be a burden, that’s why I insisted in sleeping on the couch downstairs now that I had new clothes to keep me warm. It just felt wrong to sleep in the same bed as Yellowings every night.
But some weird noise woke me up in the middle of the night. A rattle… the rattle of a rattle snake… rattling.
I turned around from the couch to find nothing but absolute darkness. The windows had been closed and even though my eyes were already adapted to it, there was just not enough light.
The rattle stopped. But then other noises started. Things were moving in the dark all around me and I felt like I was back in that horrible forest.
Again, the rattle and a hissing could be heard. I focused on guessing the general direction of the source of the noise and looked at the stairs that lead to the first floor. The two directions were different. Some little critters ran around concealed by the darkness, maybe running away from the snake, or snakes… or snaken…
Minutes passed by and my mind went deeper and deeper into mindless panic, trying to determinate the source of the noises, but they were too many sources, too many critters and potential dangers, and I couldn’t identify any of them.
Something started to crawl up to the couch and that was too much. I made a beeline to the stairs in a sudden sprint that sent me crashing into the railing, but I grabbed onto it and used it as a reference in the complete darkness to find my way up.
Yellowings was woken up by the sudden noise and was half out of bed, with a foreleg raised, ready to intervene and was startled by my unexpected presence. We looked into each other for a few seconds until my breathing came back to something relatively normal and Yellowings relaxed again. The enormous moon shone in the sky and could be seen from one of the windows, that’s why I could more or less see now here, under the moonlight.
The mare moved to the side and patted the empty space with a wing, a raised eyebrow and a half smirk that radiated an “I told you so”. I hated my life so much at that moment. I even considered going into the bathroom and using the tub as a bed, but my blankets were downstairs and I wasn’t going to go back there until morning. And I realized that it was a chilly night, and I would end up having a terrible backache if I tried to sleep like that, and maybe a cold too.
And that’s how I slept again with Yellowings.
***
It smelled like yellow.
I woke up again with yellow pony all over me. But it was still better than waking up surrounded by unknown and potentially dangerous critters.
As this first couple of days with the little horses passed, I got the nagging sensation that they were treating me like an animal, and that got a little bit under my skin. Well, I couldn’t talk to them, so I couldn’t fix any misunderstandings. It might be my imagination and it could be the way these equines do stuff, but still. I got the impression that I was being taken care of by the local veterinary or animal keeper rather than being taken to a hospital, assuming they got one of those, of course.
This got a little bit more obvious when Yellowings took care of an injured racoon, and she put it on the sofa and more or less did the same things she did for me, including bandaging its little leg and spoon feeding him a small bowl of soup. The racoon seemed to be much more intelligent than a regular racoon, because it responded to Yellowings’s indications and more or less behaved itself accordingly.
Huh… just like me, I guess. Well, but I can cook, take a bath and handle the house equipment on my own, I wear clothes and have tools, that had to count for something, didn’t it?
While Yellowings was busy with the racoon, I started to smell something cooking. I paid a little bit more attention and heard the sounds of someone doing something in the kitchen. With curiosity, I stood up and went to check. Maybe another horse friend of hers came and was making breakfast.
I opened the door and found a bear.
Okay, bearing in mind that bears are known for being really dangerous, I got a little bit startled, but this bear was standing on its rear legs and using his claws to hold a pan on the stove and used the other one to stir whatever it was with a wooden spoon. And it was also wearing a frilly pink apron. I could also see that its expression was a relaxed one and it was smiling goofily. It looked at me and didn’t look like he was going to do anything, it just kept stirring. I backed away slowly and closed the door.
“Uh… excuse me, Yellowings, but there is a bear in the kitchen.” I said, mildly alarmed but keeping my cool.
“Neigh snort… neigh neigh…” She explained the situation, then, giving the racoon a final check over, she stood up and led me back to the kitchen.
“Snort neigh whinny whinny.” She said to the bear, then pointed at me. “Neigh…”
The bear roared in the way that bears do, but he kept that goofy smile and waved a claw at me.
“Oh, nice to meet you, Harry.”
After Yellowings introduced ourselves properly, I found the bear’s presence surprisingly bearable. I shook my head, regained my bearings, went back to the couch and sat next to the racoon.
“Neigh whinny neigh… errr… neigh.” Yellowings explained.
“Huh… I don’t know how I feel about a bea… I mean… Harry preparing breakfast. Bearing in mind he is a bear…”
Harry came out of the kitchen with two bowls of scrambled eggs, one in each claw, and deposited them onto the table before us. Apart from being slightly uneven and kind of more brown than necessary in some places, they were palatable and expertly seasoned.
After that, Harry took off the frilly pink apron, put it on a rack and went back to all fours, becoming a normal looking bear, except for the goofy smile of his, then he went trough the door, pausing a little to look back and wave at me, then at Yellowings.
“Neigh!” Yellowings thanked the bear for his assistance.
Welp… that happened, I guess…
We went through breakfast and feeding the animals routine. But that day was going to be different. After taking care of the animals, instead of staying inside, Yellowings came out of the cottage and motioned me to follow her. With the new clothes, I followed her without a problem. It was a nice day with the appropriate gear, the sun was shining and I could feel a cool breeze refreshing my head.
I let Yellowings lead the way. I didn’t know where we were going anyways. After a few minutes we came into the… pony town, I guess.
The first pony we met was a little foal with his or her mother. As soon as the little foal saw me, he or she tried to take a closer look at me, but the mother grabbed the foal’s tail and pulled it back, then she dragged her son or daughter into a house, closing the door loudly. A few seconds later, the mare opened the door again and took the doormat inside and closed it again. Then she closed the windows too.
I looked at the yellow mare a little confused by that reaction. She just smiled sheepishly and motioned me to continue and ignore the incident.
We continued our walk through the town. It was obvious that the rest of the ponies were avoiding us, but in general no one reacted like that mother. Or at least that was until we passed near a flower shop with three mares taking care of the garden.
All the three mares had some kind of flower painted on their flanks, and they were similar in color. One of them, who had reddish hair and a rose on her butt spotted me and pointed a hoof in my general direction, gasping.
The three mares looked at me and gasped at the same time, even the rosy one gasped again like if they were synchronized. Then, they started so scream horrified pony words between them, with faces of pure terror. One of them started to run in circles and crashed into another. Then they looked at each other and fainted in a dramatic motion. The last mare standing, one with light pink coat and blonde mane, looked at her friends lying on the floor, froze, and fell to the side like a fainting goat.
“What’s happening?” I asked, genuinely worried.
Yellowings looked ashamed, not really sure what to do.
One of the mares whispered something loudly enough to be heard. The second one opened an eye, looked at me, closed it again and hushed the first one. The third mare’s rear leg twitched.
“Hey, that one fainted for real… We should help her or something.” I pointed at the twitchy pink mare.
Yellowings just smiled the most sheepish of smiles and pushed me away with her forelegs, using a few flaps of her wings for help.
***
Fluttershy pushed the creature out of the sight of the flower sisters. “Oh dear… it’s just like the Zecora’s incident all over again.” She muttered for herself. That mare with her filly acted exactly like that the first time they saw the zebra, but she wasn’t expecting such a powerful reaction from any other pony.
They walked for a few more minutes. Luckily, no other pony had a panic attack. They just avoided them in general, and sometimes, a foal would look curiously at the mysterious creature.
Today was Saturday, and the fillies and colts were playing around with their friends and families. Fluttershy felt a sudden chill when she thought what kind of thing would the cutie mark crusaders do if they discovered the creature she was taking care of. The streets were busy, so she felt the urge to hurry up to get away from the stares of the other ponies.
“Hey, Fluttershy!” The mare turned around, looking for who had just called her, only to find a little unkempt Twilight approaching.
“Oh, dear… Twilight? Are you okay?” Fluttershy asked, covering her muzzle with a hoof in a gesture of worry.
“Well, yes…” Twilight sighed. “It’s been an intense night of studying…” Twilight spotted the weird creature, the source of her frustrations and squinted her eyes at it in a challenging way. “I will discover your secrets…”
The creature emitted it’s chattering sound in a worried manner and stepped back from Twilight.
“It’s okay, don’t worry, she is safe.” Fluttershy smiled calmly at the creature.
“… clothes… hmmm… then it is from a really warm environment…” A quill scratched furiously at a piece of parchment that came out of nowhere. Fluttershy thought for a moment that Twilight wasn’t so unlike Pinkie. But instead of cupcakes, Twilight had the ability to make books, parchments and quills appear out of nowhere.
They continued their walk together towards Sugar Cube Corner. Twilight didn’t stop her jotting and staring at the creature. The mysterious being just walked by Fluttershy’s side, making sure she was between Twilight and itself. From time to time, it would take glances back to Twilight to check if she was doing something suspicious.
“So, um…” Fluttershy started, wanting to break the awkward silence and relax the situation, but unsure about what to say. “…How was your day?”
Twilight groaned. “Frustrating… I… there… I can’t seem to find anything about this creature!” She pointed a hoof at the mysterious being. It flinched at the sudden attention. Fluttershy smiled and hushed at it in a calming manner while Twilight went on. “I might be getting a little bit rusty about my academic skills… then… how…” Twilight started to panic.
“Twilight… you need to rest; you are starting to say non… nonsense.” Fluttershy shied away a little at the last word. “Maybe it’s just that… there aren’t any books… about it?” What was an affirmative statement turned into a hesitant question at the end.
“But that’s impossible! That would mean that he is from a totally undiscovered…” Twilight eyes went wide. “…species…” She resumed her furious note taking.
“If that was the case… There should be some clues. Other relevant information, some similar species, fossils from the past about their primitive cousins… Rumors… “ Twilight gestured wildly around with her forelimbs, rearing up and ruffling her wings. The creature flinched, not sure what that meant. “But no… it’s like it had appeared out of thin air.”
“Magic?” Fluttershy quietly suggested.
“But there are no registers about a magical event such as the portal to the breezies world that would suggest that a creature like him could be from another plane of existence… It would be the first time that something like it comes to Equestria, from its plane of existence.”
“Um… are you bringing your pet owl to the picnic?” Fluttershy changed the course of the conversation, trying to distract Twilight from her studies. They had planned a picnic with their pets. It was Fall season, and soon it would be Winter. Tank was going to start his hibernation and Rainbow Dash wanted to say goodbye to it, so they decided to prepare a pet day picnic. Angel had been more difficult than normal, with Fluttershy’s attention on the mysterious creature, so he was grounded for the day. And it was an excellent chance to take the creature outside to meet with Fluttershy’s friends.
“Yes, of course. I left him behind while I’m buying something for the picnic…” Twilight lowered her head, a little ashamed. “I have spent all my time studying and forgot to prepare something.”
“Well… I had to take care of the new creature and its special needs, and I was a little bit late too, so I decided to do the same…” Fluttershy smiled sheepishly.
“Sugar Cube Corner it is, isn’t it?” Twilight smirked.
***
Purplesmart is creepy. She spent the whole trip looking at me and taking notes, only to be interrupted now and then by Yellowings. The yellow pony kept trying to calm me down, and it somehow worked. After a little while, something got my complete and undivided attention, the purple menace completely forgotten.
It was a… cake, or a house…
Okay, I could see the structure, the walls and the windows. It was some kind of house, but it was decorated to look like a… weird combination of desserts cobbled together. Whatever it was, it was obvious that they took their sweet, sweet time creating the decorations. It was a baroque sugary piece of art to the point that I got overwhelmed and couldn’t focus on any single detail in particular. And we were heading in the direction of the building.
After a brief conversation, purplesmart went inside first. Then, after a few seconds she came back, said something to Yellowings and she motioned me to come in.
It was a store. The clerk was a pink pony with curly hair and twitchy hyperactive behavior. She waved at me and I waved back at her. The counter was full of baked goods such as cupcakes, cakes, pies and other sweet goods. Looking around I paid no more attention to the decorations as I got focused on the tiny equines that were inside.
There was a total of six additional creatures. The store clerk was the first one I noticed. It looked quite normal and had neither wings nor horn, except for the bright pink color. The second creature I noticed was a winged one, it was blue in color and had a multicolor mane and tail. It started to fly around me like a shark, squinting at me. There were a couple of… normal type ones? One chubby, with blue coat and pink mane and tail, the other one looked quite skinny and tall, it was yellow and had orange hair. Both of them wore aprons. And the last two of them were little, children I suppose. Maybe those were a couple with two children… foals?
The flying one interrupted my thoughts by stopping a few inches away from my face, staring intensely at me and flapping lazily its wings to hover in place. Maybe it was related to Yellowings, as the two of them were winged type.
Rainbow… yes, that’s a very appropriate one… Rainbow stared at me for a little while. I just stood there staring back. Then, it looked back at Yellowings and asked something, and the yellow mare answered in a calming manner, probably sensing some kind of hostility. After that, Rainbow continued its staring.
Suddenly, Rainbow crossed its eyes and threw me a raspberry, followed by a series of silly faces and sounds, shaking its head from side to side. While maintaining a calm and neutral expression, I panicked internally.
That must have been some kind of ritual, greeting or tradition those little equines had. Or most likely being silly for the sake of being silly. Nonetheless, in the hopes of being polite and avoid any misunderstanding I tried to return the gesture with one of my own. I crossed my eyes and poked my tongue out, trying to show a silly face imitating the winged equine.
The reaction was immediate. The blue winged creature burst out laughing, losing its concentration and falling to a gentle crash on the floor and started rolling in laughter, only regaining its concentration to say something to the other creatures. The pink one bounced in place and smiled. Yellowings relaxed and smiled timidly, though Purplesmart looked mildly shocked.
After that incident, things calmed down a little, at least for me. Purplesmart, Yellowings, Rainbow and Pink started to chat between them, leaving me relatively alone to concentrate in my own thoughts. Then, I noticed again the couple of normal equines with their foals. The tall one was working, taking tray after tray of baked goods to the counter, while the chubby one looked after the little ones.
The yellow one was taller, and slightly different from the other equines, but I couldn’t put my finger on what exactly made it different. Its voice was slightly deeper, not as high pitched as the other ones. Suddenly I realized. It was the male of the couple!
It was the first time I had identified a male specimen from these creatures. Comparing with the other equines I realized that probably all of them were females. I decided that it was a good starting point.
The blue female that was taking care of the foals was talking to them in an endearing tone. I couldn’t identify any patterns. The sounds seemed completely random, until one of the foals repeated vaguely a sound that its mother had just produced.
The mother looked happy about it and called her companion, repeating the sound over and over again to see if the foal would say it again for the male to hear. It looked oddly similar to a couple trying to make their child say their first word.
The yellow stallion started to produce the sound too, but it was articulated in a different way. I was confused for a moment until I found something. The sounds had similar tune and cadence, like some kind of rhythm or a little part of a song. Then I recalled how those horse words were always sing-song-ish. I started to practice whispering the little rhythm and tune.
All the attention was on the little foals trying to imitate their parents. Pink was bouncing in place with a smile so wide that it was almost creepy and producing some muffled happy horse noises. Yellowings’s eyes were wide and almost sparkling, focused on them. Purplesmart was just smiling, and Rainbow was staring at them, smiling awkwardly, looking like she didn’t know what to do.
After some babbling from the foals that resembled slightly the original sound, the equines seemed to relax. Yellowings smiled at me and said something in an endearing voice, probably something about how cute those foals were. I was busy trying to remember the sounds, and repeating them. They were probably the first horse words that I would learn, and I needed to try them.
Yellowings was still smiling at me, and she was the pony I had spent more time with, she was the best option to try those words. I looked at her with determination and prepared to repeat the sound in a clear voice. It was a singsong little burst that lasted no more than a second and a half, and was easy to memorize. I started with confidence, but deflated a little in the end, making it sound like a question.
“Mommy?”